Syracuse, N.Y. — One has to imagine that if Barack Obama's brother-in-law couldn't hold onto the Oregon State job, if the folks who run the Beavers weren't the least bit concerned about ticking off the most powerful man in the world, it's probably a job nobody should want.

And that would include Mike Hopkins, who may have been spared even if it meant that his latest set of prayers went unanswered. Perhaps the long-time Syracuse University assistant got the break of his coaching life when OSU decided that someone else was better suited to run the basketball show out there in Corvallis.

That someone else appears to be Wayne Tinkle, whose Montana Grizzlies took on the Orange in the 2013 NCAA Tournament and fell just 48 points shy of an upset. The hope is that he is a fella with both imagination and skin as thick as the fattest of pork chops. Because he'll need both. Plus some athletes, of course.

How's this for a reconstruction project? The Beavers, who lost to Coppin State and Akron and Radford in the season that just ended (and then lost their five top scorers), enticed a crowd of 1,351 to enter their 65-year-old building to watch the final home game of the campaign.

Craig Robinson, brother of Michelle, might have the President's cell phone, which gives him a certain gravitas. But after fashioning only one winning season in the six he spent in Corvallis and seeing attendance fall like a British heavyweight, it turned to bupkus. And so, he's gone, replaced not by Hopkins but, likely, by Tinkle.

And, oh baby, Mike — 44, and sitting by Jim Boeheim's side in the role of aide for 18 years — could have gotten lucky. Oregon State has produced its share of Gary Paytons and A.C. Greens, of Mel Countses and Lonnie Sheltons, of Dave Gambees and Steve Johnsons. But these days the Beavers have a good view of the edge of nowhere, which means Hopkins' snub may have been more blessing and less brush-off.

Now, it's understood that Mike has his own ambitions and that he is also nothing if not a devoted son eager to make his parents prouder yet by landing a head job sooner than later. Thus, his interest in those recent openings at Southern California and Marquette and Boston College and Oregon State.

And perhaps that is all that is needed to be grasped in order to appreciate why Hopkins would leave SU, his beloved alma mater, despite having been anointed the heir apparent to the fortress that has been Boeheim.

It is kind of simple, isn't it? Boeheim, who'll be 70 in the fall, has shown no (public) signs of fatigue, he's supposedly revealed zero down-the-road retirement plans to his staff and his Orange clubs have won 177 times — or just less than 30 per season — since he turned 64. So why would anybody, including Mike, believe the boss is headed out the door anytime soon?

Oregon State, then, made some sense for Hopkins. But it probably did for Robinson, too.

In the end, though, it didn't help the latter that he was related to Barack Obama; it might not have helped the former that he worked for Jim Boeheim. Not, in Mike Hopkins' case, that we'll ever know now.

(Bud Poliquin's columns/commentaries and other contributions can be found a couple of times a day, usually, Monday through Friday, usually, on syracuse.com. His work also regularly appears on the pages of The Post-Standard newspaper. Additionally, Poliquin can be heard weekday mornings between 10-12 on the "Bud & the Manchild" sports-talk radio show on The Score-1260.)